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What does Sadio Mané's injury mean for Liverpool in GW8?

Sadio Mané's injury will certainly be a blow for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool ahead of an important GW8 clash with Manchester United at Anfield on Saturday lunch time.

According to OptaJoe, the Reds average 2.2 league goals with the Senegalese star in their side compared to 1.6 without him since his debut in August 2016.

That stat has continued to prove pertinent this season even since the arrival of goal-scoring midfielder Mohamed Salah (£9.2m).

Combining the remainder of Liverpool's loss at Manchester City in which Mané was sent off with their 1-1 draw with Burnley in GW5 and 3-2 win at Leicester a week later, the Reds averaged just 1.33 goals per game.

Liverpool are set to be without Sadio Mané for several weeks (Image: Getty Images)

Given Manchester United's defensive improvements this year it is hard to see Liverpool racking up the goals in GW8.

But it's not all negative for FPL bosses with Liverpool assets. Those who have Salah in their squads will now have less concerns over rotation with Mané out again.

In those games without Mané, Liverpool still scored a goal every 58.5 minutes and given that Salah is the club's top goal-scorer this season with six strikes in all competitions (four in the Premier League), he is the obvious switch for those hoping to stay invested in the Reds.

A lot of people out there would be tempted to tip Philippe Coutinho (£9.0m) as the Liverpool replacement for Mané but do remember that he is considered something of a rotation risk after playing for Brazil on Tuesday night.

Is Sead Kolasinac injured or not?

There have been conflicting reports from Bosnia over whether or not Arsenal defender Sead Kolasinac (£6.0m) sustained an injury during his country's win over Estonia on Tuesday night.

He was substituted at half-time with the score currently at 0-0.

That led to fears that the left wing-back had picked up an injury - some sources claiming he might have a calf-strain. After all the World Cup qualifier in which Bosnia were participating was a must-win for them as they needed to win and better Greece's result to reach the UEFA play-offs.

A tactical substitution to remove one of their best players wouldn't make a great deal of sense in that scenario.

Thankfully for those who own the Arsenal man there has been no report of an injury for local press over night so the initial consensus is that the change was a tactical one made by Bosnian boss Mehmed Baždarević.

In fact there were several encouraging tweets from those who were at the game.

This may well have to be something we have to wait on Arsene Wenger to clarify in his pre-match press conference later this week, though.

From that list, the biggest rotation risks is, as already mentioned, Philippe Coutinho. His next game is on Saturday lunch-time while the others all play after that or are assured starters because of injuries in their squads.

The only other slight concern is probably Nicolas Otamendi (£5.7m) considering that Manchester City have rotated Eliaquim Mangala into the back-line on occasion this season.